How we spent the weekend continued

Madison soup:
Take one cute baby named Madison
throw it in the dirty laundry bin and shake her real good with the spin cycle until smooth
then clean her real good scrubbing hard to reach places thoroughly
boil 4 cups of water in a large pot
place her in the pot and simmer for about 20 min stirring occasionally
Season to taste and serve hot

Enjoy!!!

How we spent the weekend 1

So President"s day weekend was quite some fun.
We went out on Saturday to celebrate Catherine and Julie's birthday and there is Maddie posing with auntie Julie and auntie Catherine, who are already prepping her to learn French. Poor little thing now thinks all Canadians come in pairs. And there she is with Dino, who was a little awkward handling her at first because she was so tiny but now he is very comfortable with her 11 lbs. She seems to have no trouble at all. That was the first time she didn't fall asleep in his arms.
Last night for her 7th week birthday daddy gave her a bath for the first time ever. He did really good and i was a bit jealous because he seems to make the whole experience much more fun than i do with silly songs and simulating a jaccuzi.

and then we made Madison soup. The recipe is to follow

E

Little by little

Little by little life is going back to normal, or as normal as it can be with a tiny sweet baby ruling your universe.
Yesterday was one of the happiest days of my life, falling short probably only of my wedding day, I fit back into pre-pregnancy clothes. True, they don't fit the way the used to, but the fact that i managed to buckle an old belt around my waist was quite joyful. There are still 25 lbs to go but just knowing that i am on the way makes me happy.
Madison is starting to sleep longer through the night and have longer awake periods where she just looks at me and smiles and makes faces. Twice now we have managed to go out for lunch or dinner and she behaved quite well, probably because she was sleeping for most of the time. We even took her shopping and she fell asleep in my arms in the midst of all the commotion and buzz.
Slowly we are figuring each other out. I know now when she cries because she is hungry, i can tell when she is tired or has gas. She is a good baby- doesn't cry without a reason. I am afraid that Jeff was right and it will be hard to get her to sleep on her own now. she seems to like sleeping in the big bed. She doesn't much care whether we are in the bed with her, though, so may be she would like sleeping in her crib rather than the bassinet that is getting smaller and smaller for her by the minute.
She was 11 lb on thursday= 5 kg and all the newborn clothes are out of the window. the bigger 0-3 months fit but we are moving on to the 3-6 months. We found a new game that she loves- "stick your tongue out" she tries to immitate me when i stick my tongue out at her and after some effort is very happy when she does it. She is very close to rolling herself onto her back and loves being on her tummy.
I don't think life will ever be same as before Madison. But i don't think i miss all that much having her is so much fun.
Jeff said yesterday " I love her so much. thank you for giving her to me!" and i think that sums up how we both feel about the chaos of life we have right now.

E

Sleeping together?

And I am not talking about having sex. I mean sleeping with my baby in the bed.
It seems to be quite a controversial topic these days should parents and baby cosleep or not. Since most people say you should let them get used to sleeping by themselves on their crib as soon as possible thats what I did. And i was petrified that I would roll over her and suffocate her. But for the last two nights we slept together- first because she had terrible gas and was in so much pain i didn't have the heart to let her out of my arms and last night because it was too cold. And it's the most wonderful thing in the world to sleep with your baby in your arms. I was afraid that i wouldn't be able to sleep, that she would wake me up or that i would wake her up. But none of that happened. It was the most blissfull sleep ever and it is so precious.
Now Jeff is saying that I shouldn't do it because she will have trouble going to her crib but i think he's just jealous because we left him to sleep by himself in the cold bedroom. Hey , he like it cold. Me i could sleep perfectly fine in 80 degrees.

On a different and no so happy note it's agonizing to watch your child in pain and be able to do nothing. When she had those terrible gas pains the other night i just wanted to rip my heart out. She was crying and crying and could not go to sleep and i could see she was exhausted and nothing i did made it any better. I just hugged and kissed her little body and tried to calm her down and tell her it's OK. If i could i would take the pain on me but i couldn't. all i could do was hold her tightly in my embrace and whisper to her that it will pass. Finally around 2am after i ran out to get some Mylicon drops to ease her pain she colapsed with exhaustion and slept for so many hours i had to feed her while she was sleeping. I am not sure who was suffering more- her little body or my heart knowing that she was in so much pain and there was so little i could do. It really is astonishing the range of emotions that a child can evoke in the parent. I never even knew that one can suffer so much just from watching someone else be in pain. Neither did i know that a toothless smile can bring so much joy. Starting to think of it we can hardly know how colorful life is until we have a baby. It's whole different universe that we never knew existed. So many new emotions and concerns and so much more joy flood into life once we have a little person to take care of. It really is impossible to describe- one has to experience it to begin to comprehend it.

E

The morning joy!

No, the morning joy is not the fact that i have to leave my cozy bed and spend the rest of the day wishing for a nap. It's that morning cup of coffee i've been thinking about and looking forward to for about a year now. I didn't really have coffee for the entire pregnancy- i had a lot of milk with a few drops of decaf in it and that doesn't count. and then when i gave birth i didn't want to overwhelm her little immature system with caffeine right away so i promised myself i will hold off that tempting cup of joe for as long as i could.
Well after a couple of sleepless nights i couldn't any more. So i brewed myself a nice cup of coffee in the brand new Krup machine, that has been collecting dust in my in- laws basement since our wedding. I must remember to tell Ruben and Patty that this was the best wedding gift ever, probably because i waited for so long before using it. 50 years from now i will still remember that wedding gift with pleasure.
And yes, this week i enjoyed my first guiltless properly proportioned ( mostly coffee, some milk) cup of black, steaming flavorfull, delicious packed with caffeine liquid. Mmmmmmm... it's still as delicious when it's cold after a few hours spent in feeding, changing, burping and hushing my baby to sleep.

It's the little things that make us happy in life!

E

...

It's so amazing to see her smile even though it's only in her sleep. she's getting to be quite a character and I am sure she will entertain us for many years to come.

On a different note I started donating milk. No not plain old cows milk, human milk ( as disgusting as that sounds. since i have plenty i figured i can empty my freeze by giving it to someone who actually needs rather than throwing it out or finding a hundreds miles away milk bank that may or may not be legit. I heard some banks actually sell the stuff they get donated and the milk is not cheap either- $3 per ounce ( and we complain about the prices of cow's milk) I found a mother who can't breastfeed because of a breast surgery so i gave her everything i had frozen and now i will be giving all the excess milk i have on a regular basis. she wants to breastfeed for 2 years though which in my modest opinion is nuts. when the child is old enough to say "booby" and run to it- it's definitely time to stop giving her the booby. It's a shame that there are so few milk banks and that they make you jump through fire hoops in order to donate milk. I am sure that's why so many mothers don't do it and the milk gets wasted. You have to answer a 20 min questionnaire and get permissions and get tested ...let's face it when you have a baby hanging on your boob throwing the milk down the drain seems much more tempting that going through all the trouble of donating it despite all your good will.
and since hospitals are trying t promote breastfeeding why don't they do the necessary tests and give you a print out that you can just fax or mail when you decide you want to help out a baby in need. After all it's just a few blood tests that are needed.

Meanwhile my own little munchkin is on a growing spree, feeding every hour and getting tighter in her 0-3 months outfits. We were rolling our eyes at everyone who send us winter clothes in 6-9 months size but they might come in handy. And while he is growing her anyhow non-existing schedule has turned upside down. First she decided that at 4 am it's time to get up and play so she refused to go back to bed and would smile and make faces at me while my own eyes were shutting and my head bopping.
then last night little miss thing decided she didn't need to sleep at all. So i think we managed to persuade her to nap from about 4 to 7 but other than that it was along weary night.
WEll she is now peacefully dreaming away by the sound of a brook( machine made) but i decided that that is what she is used to hearing in my womb and it seems to calm her down. It's much better than the hairdryers because one can actually hear the TV over the noise and the sound can be lowered to a bearable level.

It seems that i am so sleep deprived i am babbling. Maybe it's time to let the brook calm me down too.

E

We are getting big

It seems as if she is growing every minute. she has gained half a pound in one week It shouldn't it be surprising considering all she does is eat sleep and poop. Ok we play a little bit too. She likes being on her tummy and is seems she is ready to crawl. She's got the motions down now she just needs the strength.

gotta go little monster is awake and screaming for food!!!

E

Baby's world

Everyone tells you that your life is going to change after you have a baaby but no one tells you how exactly it changes. Well, here are some examples of how my baby turned my world and life upside down.
Meals became optional- i am not talking sit down meals, i talking eating whatsoever. You have a screaming infant in your hands and there is no one to help you, you ain't gonna put her down just so you can fix yourself lunch.
Showers are a luxury- if there is someone to hold her while I manage to wash off the breastmilk from my body- great!
Otherwise my husband comes home and asks what smells?
Sleep... only in my dreams. It's not happening. I read somewhere that it's a sort of a torture to wake people up as soon as they fall asleep. Torture it is.
Not being able to get out of my pajamas until noon ( and sometimes at all). You would think I stay in bed all day long. sometimes i do- i eat and read and check my email and do all my errands in my pajamas. I don't really have the time to change- and what is the point since i haven't taken a shower?
Being resourceful-i have to find ways to do things that need to be done, one way or another. the other day I strapped her in the baby bjorn so i could have my hands free to wash the dirty bottles. Had no choice - I was running out of bottles and pump accessories.
Bra size- I had no idea that size E existed. Ironic! I used go around shopping for my modest B cup bras ( that i never wore) and look at those enormous DD cups and tell myself that they are uggliest thing ever. Life has a funny way of getting back at you.
My hands are all patchy and dry from washing bottles and handwashing poopy clothes. On the bright side i should have no trouble going back to trapeze- try walking around with 10 lb attached to your arms all day long- my biceps are getting a hell of a workout.
Poop and boobs became very important conversation topics.
Watching TV with the hairdryer on- try watching American idol like that.
Even going to the store takes a whole lot of planning. I have to figure out when she was fed, is she going to scream for food while we are wating in line, when did i last pump, when was she changed, trying to find my wallet and key and not to forget my cellphone. The hardest part is remembering what i went out for.

I have to keep myself entertained somehow....
E